You know you haven’t blogged in a while when your web browser doesn’t autofill the web address in like it usually does. I paused blogging semi-intentionally — podcasting for the wedding requires the same thought process, and I’ve let that take center stage for bit. I’m also considering starting a blog focused purely on teaching. But everything’s great, and I *will* be back! ❤

What do I do on my last day of summer, with Stephen away and nothing really to do?

Well first, I went to the Pasadena City College Flea Market, where I had an AMAZING haul. Like, seriously, just a TON of reasonably priced things that I had been looking for and that I will treasure. What I was supposed to be spending money on was mercury glass votives for the wedding (the one thing I know for sure I want), but is it my fault that there were none to be found? I had to spend my money on something.

I also decided to bake cookies, which always makes me feel productive. Speaking of feeling productive, I guess it took until I had 14 hours left of summer before I really felt the urge to wedding plan. So other things I can cross off my to-do list for tonight: Buying decorations (which is a feat considering that I don’t really know what I want. More on that later, I’m sure). And I reached out to four day-of coordinators to get quotes for the wedding. Feeling good!

So it’s been an eventful few weeks…the main event being that I start a new job (on Monday!) teaching 7th grade in BURBANK. This is a pretty big deal considering I have only ever known one teaching home up until this point. I’ve been putting together my classroom over the last few days. What a luxury it is to have 1) Almost unlimited time to get started on this endeavor and 2) Miles and miles of wall space and built-in storage. It’s a work in progress, but here are some things I worked on today:

The “an historian” irks Stephen, to which I reply that I refuse to say “Thinking like uhhhh historian”. Also, this school is filled to the brim with helpful people and helpful resources:

It was really hard saying goodbye to these particular students, and it’s hard to put into words exactly why, expect that they were just really down to earth, good people and really excited all the time. What more can a teacher want? I was given more big hugs and asked to take more selfies than on previous last days. Today was also sort of surreal because two of the teachers on my grade level team whom I am very close with are not coming back next year, so today marked more than just the end of our time with one group of students. It hasn’t completely sunk in that I won’t get to work with these two teachers anymore, though there was definitely a sadder feeling hanging in the air than on previous last days.

I have a busy week starting tomorrow (our first venue tour, the 8th grade graduation and then our flight to Seattle), so I imagine the fact that summer has started won’t sink in for a while either. I know I *should* be excited about this taking-a-break-from-work thing, so I’ll have that to look forward to when things settle down enough for me to enjoy it!

…until the end of this school year. I really can’t believe it. I’m going to miss these kids (and I’m going to miss having stuff to do, seriously, I don’t know what I’m going to do when summer comes. OH WAIT WEDDING).

I’ll make a longer post dedicated to my amazing kids and my successes this year, but for now I’ll just say that I am not ready to see them move on. CAN I FAIL THEM ALL?

What’s the best thing do to on a long weekend with no lesson plans do? Try a bunch of new restaurants, of course.

Dinner Friday was a spontaneous trip to The Crabby Crab within walking distance of our place. Delicious. Oh, and churros after.

On Thursday we had catering at work from a taco man, and I ordered a barbacoa taco. My coworkers encouraged me to try birria since I liked my barbacoa taco. Birria is usually goat, though at our local taqueria it’s described as beef stew. Anyway, it’s my new favorite.

Okay okay so then on Saturday night we met Jackie and Roy at Trader Sam’s at the Disneyland hotel, which was great and I don’t know why I had never been. When certain drinks are ordered, the lights flash and there are hurrican sounds and the bartenders spray customers with water.

Then, to close out this long weekend, I enjoyed brunch this morning at Sqirl in Silver Lake with Andrea and Sarah, which I had been meaning to try for a while. My stuffed brioche French toast was so good!

The last time I blogged (umm….four weeks ago, sorry Dad!), I posted at the very end of a particularly joyous weekend. As a teacher, my weekends are very rarely full of fun from start to finish, so it was an especially good weekend filled with vintage finds, Passover, and people I love. But of course what I didn’t know when I posted it was that later that night Stephen and I would be engaged! Making it an even better weekend than I realized at the time.

I thought that getting engaged after living together (and after starting preliminary budget conversations pre-engagement) would make getting engaged pretty anti-climactic, but I was happily wrong. It’s weird how making something official, even though you both know it is definitely going to happen, feels so wonderful. We’ve been basking in the wonderfulness of it for the past four weeks, so much so that we have yet to make anything else official. We definitely haven’t set a budget yet, which means we haven’t found a venue, or chosen colors, or really done anything. Except that we know it will be somewhere in Southern California.

We have, however, started a wedding website! Complete with a weekly podcast tracking our wedding planning experiences. I imagine I will also post about those experiences here.

I’ve had an especially terrible cold this whole week and the weekend before, but this weekend really made up for it.

Yesterday Ryan got his car looked at in Van Nuys, so I picked him up and we had breakfast at a new place I hadn’t tried before.

Inspired by being in Studio City, I decided to take the opportunity to go to the nearest Barnes and Noble to pick up the new book on Hamilton that I have been very excited about (which is currently sold out on Amazon). I haven’t been in a B&N in forever and it was overwhelming. After a trip to the History section I had to make myself leave because there was too much to take in. I should add that I recently finished a great book, and there is no greater feeling than wanting to read while simultaneously having the opportunity to choose a brand new book to begin.

Oh yeah, and did I mention the crazy well-fitting skirt and dress I picked up spontaneously across the street from breakfast? Whoops (I have no regrets).

Oh yeah, and churro ice cream sandwiches.

Then Stephen’s tuna melts with Prosecco (don’t ask) and the first episode of The Night Manager for dinner.

This morning we woke up early to meet my mom and grandparents at the vintage flea market in Woodland Hills, and I got some great stuff. That was followed by a delicious Passover lunch chez mes grandparents.

And I almost forgot – GAME OF THRONES. And Veep. And Turn tomorrow. Couldn’t be a better weekend!

Me: Okay everyone, now that we’ve taken this pre-test, I want you to fill in the blank in this sentence: “If I were to take the *real* test today, I would score a _____%”.

Student: ::writes 10%::
Me, in my head: Wow! That student is a lot more self-aware of his current (low) ability in this subject matter than I thought he was! Awesome! Now this is something I can really work with!
Student: 10%! A+!
Me: Yup.